DOUBLE murderer Gary Vinter is to appeal against his full life sentence for stabbing his estranged wife Anne White to death.

Today Anne’s mother, Peggy, speaks of the family’s trauma over the legal challenge and their wish to see the knife killer “rot in jail”.

She said she was “horrified, frightened” when she learned of the appeal.

“I can’t understand why it got this far. Why are they giving him an appeal?” she said.

“Everybody’s disgusted at it.

“I think he’s just doing it to upset everybody. He’s just vindictive and arrogant.

“We just want him to do his whole life term.

“I hope that life means life, that he never ever gets out again, that he rots in there.

“We just want peace. We want peace of mind. This is just keeping it going all the time.

“We just want to be able to get on with our lives. That’s it.”

The family is circulating a petition opposing the appeal, collecting hundreds of signatures in an impassioned effort to have their voices heard.

Vinter, 39, is appealing against his full life sentence - currently life meaning life as it has no minimum prison term.

The family has twice faced Vinter’s cruel and contemptuous smirks and goading from the dock and the witness box of Teesside Crown Court.

Now they face the prospect of seeing the 6ft 7in brute again at London’s Court of Appeal.

Peggy is steeling herself for the ordeal of seeing Vinter in court again: “I don’t want to see him again but I have to do it for the family. I have to be there, just for my own peace of mind.”

His appeal will be heard by the country’s top judge - the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge - and two other High Court judges, Mr Justice Simon and Mr Justice Blair, later this month.

Family fight to keep evil double murderer gary Vinter behind bars for life

HE killed their beloved daughter in cold blood, sneered and taunted them across a courtroom - now he is appealing his life sentence.

Gary Vinter is locked up for murdering his estranged wife Anne White.

He tried to strangle the 40-year-old mum then stabbed her to death in February 2008, weeks after he was released from prison.

Anne’s mother Peggy today told the Gazette of the shattering consequences of the brutal killing, including the decline and death of her own husband.

She also paid touching tribute to her “beautiful” daughter.

The family have prepared a petition opposing any reduction in Vinter’s sentence which could leave him “free to slay again”.

They have been knocking on doors asking for support and putting signs in shops telling of the petition.

Peggy, 64, from Eston, said more than 500 signatures had already been added to the petition, which states: “Eye 4 an eye, tooth 4 a tooth... Help us fight to keep his next victim safe and him to rot in jail.”

Last April, Vinter began his life sentence to shouts of “rot in hell” from the public gallery.

Judge Peter Fox QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, said he was “incapable of self control” and had to lose his liberty permanently.

In January this year, bodybuilder Vinter appeared in a separate trial.

He was a chief prosecution witness against Ms White’s son Aaron, who was accused of sending a letter to Vinter’s prison cell threatening to kill his mother in revenge.

Aaron White, 21, was cleared after Vinter showed a total disinterest in the case.

After a macabre performance in which he tried to antagonise members of the White family, smiling, staring and daring them to “go for it”, he bizarrely upended his story in the witness box and claimed he had written the letter himself.

The day after that trial, High Court judges in London gave him permission to appeal against the murder sentence.

Peggy wants Vinter kept in prison for life - not least to protect Ms White’s loved ones from themselves if they came into contact with him and were overcome with emotion.

“I don’t want anybody to go to prison for him,” she said. “Why should they?

“There’s grandchildren. The youngest’s eight. He gets out in 10, 15 years, that child will be old enough to meet him in the street.

“One of my grandkids or my own son would attack him if they saw him.”

She told how her husband, retired grouter Jim, had died aged 72 since Vinter was sentenced for the murder.

“Since he’s done this my husband died through it. It’s all through the stress of this.

“He died from lung cancer. It was all stress that brought his illness on.

“He never picked up after Anne died, and he was a fit man. He just went downhill.

“When the grandchildren found out it was terrible for them.”

She talked of the stress to Anne’s four children - Aaron, Anthony, 24, Paige, 17, and Reece, 8.

“Paige is upset. She keeps breaking down all the time over it. It’s bringing it all back to her again. Reece is aware of what’s going on. Anthony and Aaron are up and down.

“My son Lawrence is in a state over it. He’s never picked up since.”

Peggy said more than 600 people attended beautician Anne’s funeral.

“She was the most happy-go-lucky person going. She lived life to the full. She was very friendly. She’d do anything for anybody, she’d help anybody.”

Vinter moved out of their home, smashing a TV set and taking Anne’s passport, five days before he murdered her.

Peggy said: “He had a big hold over her. He hit her, he gave her a black eye. She was that frightened of him in case he harmed the kids.

“She tried to protect him because she was frightened to say anything.

“When she first got with him, he seemed to be nice but once he married her everything changed. Once they got married that was it.

“Anne didn’t want him and he didn’t want anybody to have Anne, so he killed her.”

The night of the killing, after drinking and taking cocaine, Vinter saw Anne on a night out. After an argument he ordered her into his car.

At his mother’s home in Normanby, he stabbed her four times, once to the heart.

He turned himself in to police, though he had to be subdued by police baton rounds, and admitted the killing saying he was “beyond angry”.

He never revealed why he killed her, telling police: “The reasons I did it, well, I'll be keeping to myself.”

On sentence, he instructed his barrister to say nothing at all on his behalf.

In 1995 Vinter stabbed his work colleague, railway signalman Carl Edon, to death and was jailed for life. He was released on licence after serving a ten-year minimum term.

During a series of “home visits” during that sentence between 2003 and his 2005 release, he met and courted Anne. Friends and family were understandably concerned.

Peggy said Vinter explained away his previous murder conviction: “He told Anne it was an accident and he only stabbed him once.

“She thought everybody needs a second chance. That’s what Anne was like. That’s Anne all over.”

Family friend Lorraine Costello, 46, said: “He’s dragging the family through sheer hell.

“He’s just hated by the people I’ve met up. There’s not one nice thing I’ve heard about this guy in all the people I’ve spoken to.

She said of Anne’s children: “Just the mention of his name breaks them down in tears. The fact that they’re being dragged to the courts again, now they’re going through the turmoil again. He’s still playing the same game.”